


Hypothetical

by Fairfaxleasee



Series: Fenris/Cassia [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Autism Spectrum, Cutting, F/M, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29134422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairfaxleasee/pseuds/Fairfaxleasee
Summary: When Fenris asks a question he's been wondering for a while, the answer Hawke ends up with isn't what either of them want it to be.
Relationships: Fenris/Female Hawke, Fenris/Hawke (Dragon Age)
Series: Fenris/Cassia [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141970
Kudos: 14





	Hypothetical

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @blondetexan and @xqueen0fhellx for betaing

“What would you do if I kissed you right now?” Fenris grinned at Cassia Hawke, who was sitting on the only other unbroken chair in the room not far from him.

He had cracked the seal on the last bottle of the Aggregio to celebrate the anniversary of his escape. Cass had come in when he was about three-quarters through it. She had been hesitant when he had first offered to tell her about how he escaped. She was usually hesitant around him when she knew he’d been drinking, and often when she suspected he might have been drinking. He couldn’t quite figure out why; she clearly wasn’t afraid of  _ him  _ like this, more like she was afraid of herself somehow. But he liked talking to her when he was just drunk enough not to be able to have his guard completely up. It let him say the things he really wanted to say to her but could never quite convince himself to do sober. Like tell her about Seheron. And that he thought she was beautiful. He had so enjoyed the reaction that provoked; a flush darkening her fair ivory cheeks, her breathing becoming deliberate enough that he could see her breasts rise and fall under the fabric of her shirt, a hand pressing into and rubbing against her neck that also tugged at her square neckline. Once she had recovered herself, she had deflected, as he expected. That was her usual reaction to any compliment anyone tried to give her. But he had been emboldened enough to repeat his statement, and after only token resistance, and more of her  _ riveting _ stuttering breaths, she had whispered to him that she was glad he thought so.

The walls Cass had up around herself were at least as high as the ones he usually had. So when she had whispered that weakness in them, he decided to press his advantage to try to find a way in. He’d been looking for years to no avail. It was odd, although Cass was odd, so maybe it was expected; he didn’t think she wanted to keep him out, it was more like she couldn’t figure out how to open the door to let him in - or that she couldn’t find a door at all.

So he asked his question, and her reaction was just as good as he was hoping it would be. Her eyes shot open wide enough for him to see the rings of distinct colors in her irises that made them so hard to pin an accurate description to. They flit around the room, looking at everything but taking in nothing as the gears in her mind turned. But the gears behind her eyes weren’t the clunky dwarven designs he’d seen in some of Varric’s things; the ones that drove Cass’ mind were intricate, precise. Amazing. Beautiful. And there  _ must _ be one that would open the door he wanted to find.

But then her eyes stopped, and Fenris was dismayed to see the dancing gears had been replaced by jagged chains.  _ Why _ did that keep happening? Her father and sister had been mages, and he had heard of Blood Magic that could cut people off from their thoughts and memories, but he doubted a couple of Southern apostates-in-hiding would even know about those spells, let alone be able to perform them. Besides, they were dead; and their magic should be just as dead. So why was she trapped in her own head where he couldn’t reach her, and she didn’t seem to be able to reach for him?

Her eyes fell to her hands as she used the left to scratch at the right. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t… It’s not…” She scratched harder.

“Cass, stop!” He reached out to try to grab one of her hands, but she flinched away and sprang out of the chair. And while her left hand wasn’t attacking the right anymore, it had left the skin red and raw and moved on to her neck.

She shook her head and kept scratching. Her lips were moving but she wasn’t making any sound. 

He sighed and put the bottle down. There was a bit left but he’d clearly had more than enough to drink that night. “I’m sorry. I obviously misinterpreted what you said.” He got up to leave the room.

“...no.”

He wasn’t sure he’d actually heard Cass say anything, but he turned to where it sounded like she had been speaking from. She was looking at a corner and turned slightly away from him; he couldn’t see her left hand, she had it crossed over her body, and he didn’t like that  _ or _ the fact that he was fairly sure he’d broken a bottle of wine earlier that week very near where she was currently standing. But if she was talking, he wanted her to keep going.

“Cass?”

She made a soft noise he couldn’t identify. “No, it’s… it was me. I came up with the wrong answer.”

“I…” he shook his head quickly at her once. “I don’t understand.”

Another noise, higher than before, and while he still couldn’t identify what it was it cut him like one of the daggers she favored. “The question. You asked, but the answer is wrong.”

“I don’t-” he still didn’t understand but he wasn’t sure either of them could take her hearing that again. “Cass, that wasn’t… you can’t answer that question wrong.”

“...already did. Worse.”

“Worse than  _ what _ , Cass?”

“The answer I had.” She turned towards him. She wasn’t looking at him, he didn’t think she was looking  _ at _ anything. “The answer I gave, worse than the answer I had.”

“But, Cass, you didn’t give an answer.”

She laughed, a hollow, empty laugh that almost made him wish for the noise from before. “This. What happened.”

Fenris wasn’t entirely sure  _ what _ had happened, but he was positive it didn’t answer his question. Part of him thought he should forget the whole thing and let her leave, but he had the oddest sense that if she left now, any chance he had of being able to be close to her would leave with her. He still didn’t understand what had happened; but if he wanted to do that, and keep it from happening again, he needed to be able to understand  _ why _ it had happened. And if he had any chance of that at all, he needed to know what she had wanted to say. “But it’s not the answer you wanted to give.”

“Can’t give the answer I wanted, ‘cause it’s not true; can’t give the answer I have, ‘cause it’s wrong.”

Fenris ran a hand through his hair and tried to force himself to calm down. Anyone else and he’d be shouting about how they were wasting his time speaking in riddles; but him shouting at Cass now would be worse than letting her leave. Cass wasn’t above speaking in riddles, it was a favorite hobby of hers around people like Anders, people who thought the point they were trying to make excused the asinine way they chose to make it. But that wasn’t what she was doing now. There was something faintly musical in her cadence when she was doing that, but her words now were mechanical and rote; like she could only see the pieces of what she was saying but not how she was fitting them together. “Cass, it’s not,” he sighed, “I asked what you’d do, that’s not something you can answer wrong.”

They stood in silence for a few minutes as Cass tried to speak, but kept stopping herself before she’d uttered the first syllable.

“Cass, please. I want to know.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed a few times, but was finally able to say something, “It’s not what you want.”

“I…” There was no point trying to deny it. Her initial reaction had been exactly what he had wanted it to be, but she had obviously seen something as she played out events that had changed that. What he wanted  _ now _ was to understand why. “I want to know your answer, Cass. Even if it’s not what I was hoping for when I asked.” She was still hesitating. “Please, Cass.”

She nodded and opened her eyes to stare at the floor between them, “If you had kissed me when you asked, I would have been worried about how drunk you were, and I wouldn’t have liked it very much, because…” She tried to keep a sob in, “Because you don’t seem to want to do that when you’re sober. And I just… I just don’t want you to regret me.”

“Cass…”

“I’m sorry,” she reached up to wipe some of the tears away with her sleeves. “I know that’s not what you wanted to hear. And it’s not what I wanted to say, but it’s the only answer I have. I’m sorry, I’ll leave before I fuck anything else up.”

She turned away as she passed him to leave the room. Part of him wanted to stop her and keep talking, but what she’d told him was enough for him to understand  _ exactly _ what had happened and why. He wasn’t anywhere near as drunk as she was obviously afraid he was, but he wasn’t sober either.

And talking to Cass when he wasn’t sober wasn’t a mistake he wanted to repeat.

\------------------------------------------------

_ Stupid, stupid, STUPID! The fuck did you have to go and tell the  _ truth _ for? You know no one wants to hear that shit, but you just can’t fucking stop yourself, can you? _

Cass had run out of ways to push the voice away again. She’d been hearing it on and off since the fiasco with Fenris the night before, which was one for the record books - even for her. She wanted so badly to be close to him, but every time she tried, she went and fucked something up.

_ Why the fuck are you acting so surprised about that? You knew it would happen, you’re fundamentally incapable of NOT fucking things up. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing or who you’re with: You. Fuck. Shit. Up. Worse, you’re such a selfish fucking bitch you can’t just accept that and just leave everyone else to be better off without you. You have to go and keep trying to impose yourself on everyone; that’s why they all hate you - they know you know it and don’t care. You know you don’t deserve to be loved; why can’t you just accept that means no one ever will? _

She ducked into an alley and leaned against a wall. She pressed down into the skin of her right arm until she felt the gash she’d made the night before start to bleed again. Usually if she was bleeding, it was enough to convince the voice she was suffering and it would leave her alone.

This time it only made things worse.

_ Hmpth, you could have blown everything with THAT little trick last night. Your one fucking hope with this is that you can manage to  _ pretend _ to be someone he could love; you know, someone  _ normal _. That thing that’s so very easy for everyone else but you can’t manage. Normal people don’t cut their own arms because they can’t talk. Normal people don’t have trouble talking to people in the first place. _

_ And you’re  _ really _ going to be in for it when your mother sees that shirt she gave you. _

Cass dropped her arms and looked up at the rain. At least she couldn’t tell whether she was crying. She assumed she was, ‘crying’ was second only to ‘fucking shit up’ on the list of things Cass couldn’t stop herself from doing no matter how much she hated it.

_ Cry all you want, it’s not like it’ll get you any sympathy. It doesn’t matter, because  _ you  _ don’t matter. _

Cass was  _ so _ tired of the voice. She knew it wasn’t really a voice, she wasn’t quite  _ that _ crazy; just the part of her that was trying to keep her where she belonged. That she didn’t listen to because she was just  _ so  _ miserable there, even if she did always end up back there. She would try to escape but no matter how hard she pretended to be normal or tried to fit in, she’d always go and do something unforgivable and come crawling back: bruised, broken, and beaten. And she’d try to make herself learn, she just never managed to. Because of the core truth of her existence: she fucked shit up. Always, invariably, and inevitably.

She heard thunder rumbling above her and realized that she would need to stop dawdling and hurry back to the estate, even if the one thing that was worse than the voice was waiting there, and likely very annoyed at her. She just needed a bit more time to persuade her feet to get moving again.

She’d been on her way back to her estate before her episode with the groceries she’d insisted were urgent enough to require her leaving in the rain; if one could consider a handful of shallots, some mushrooms and a few quail’s eggs ‘groceries.’ It had been a ridiculous excuse, she’d known it when she’d said it, but she couldn’t think of anything besides the weekly market that was important enough for her to leave in the middle of a storm that would be there in said storm. Of course, between the lateness of the hour she’d left and the weather, there was almost nothing worth buying. The necessity of the errand hadn’t been in what she was getting outside the estate; it had been what she was leaving inside the estate.

Her mother had  _ somehow _ (and if Cass ever managed to trace it to Varric she would  _ murder _ the dwarf, after inflicting appropripriate commupance) accquired some sort of portfolio with information about every man in Hightown and her new favorite activity was to sit Cass down and go over it in the vain hope that there would be something in there that would make Cass decide  _ that _ was the husband she wanted. She had pointed out that at least at third of the entries were for men who were  _ already _ married, but her mother had brushed aside that concern with a declaration that between Cass’s money and the Amell name, those existing marriages should be regarded as mere temporary states. Cass would have pointed out that she wouldn’t have wanted to marry anyone who could be bribed with her money and the Amell name but that, assuming her mother didn’t ignore the sentiment entirely, would just make her mother ask Cass even  _ more _ probing questions about ‘just what she was looking for in a man, particularly as she wasn’t exactly managing to make any progress with that elf.’

Cass had tried asking her mother not to refer to Fenris as ‘that elf,’ but that always just devolved into a lecture about how Cass shouldn’t be wasting her time with him, he was fine for ‘a starter’ (Cass had no idea what her mother was talking about with that word but knew better than to ask) as long as she promised to get him out of her system, or that he’d probably gotten too close a look and wasn’t interested in her anyway. Sometimes her mother would manage to put all three theses into the same lecture, and Cass actually vaguely enjoyed that because she could make an estoppel argument which was one of the few things that would end a conversation with her mother almost immediately (no one was ever willing to argue estoppel with her). But as occasionally entertaining at that was, most of the time the lectures were just salt in the wound about how she kept managing to fuck up and would  _ never  _ manage to make any progress with Fenris (or anyone else she supposed but she couldn’t honestly say she cared about that).

Cass stopped dreading getting back to the estate when she noticed something odd happening. Or more precisely, when she noticed that it was odd something was  _ not _ happening: it had stopped raining on her. It was raining everywhere around her, but not  _ on _ her. She looked up and saw a hide umbrella above her head. She squinted up at the mysterious object. She wasn’t holding it, she didn’t even think she had brought one with her, so she had no idea what it thought it was  _ doing _ there blocking the rain.

“I’m fairly certain it won’t work the way it’s supposed to if you glare a hole in it.”

She turned to see Fenris a few steps away from her, holding the umbrella over her with a half-smile on his lips. She tilted her head to try to get a better read on the expression; she didn’t think he looked quite happy, but he didn’t seem to look angry either. And after the previous night, ‘not angry’ was better than she had a right to expect. Still, she was hesitant. Just because he wasn’t angry  _ now _ didn’t mean he couldn’t  _ get _ angry.

“I… oh. I wasn’t sure what it was doing there. I didn’t think I’d brought one. Although it does sound like what my mother may have shouted as I was leaving that I ignored.”

The smile extended most of the way across his mouth. It seemed to have lost its odd edge, but it could just be she wasn’t able to find it in the wider expression, “Well, I can’t say whether it’s what your mother shouted, but I know you didn’t bring one. Or at least you didn’t have one on your way back. I saw you out the window when you passed by. I thought you could use one.”

Cass looked around. They were in an alley off the courtyard between the Chantry and the Keep, well past Fenris’ manor on the way back to her estate.

“You saw me out the window… Fenris, how long have you been standing there?”

He oscillated his head, “Not long. I almost lost you when you ducked into this alley. It took me a few minutes to work out where you’d gone.”

She blushed and looked away, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you stand out in the rain.”

“Cass,” she turned back to him and met his eyes for a fraction of a second. He smiled as she did but, like always, she just wasn't able to keep looking directly at him. “If I were afraid of being out in the rain, I wouldn’t have followed you. Besides,” he indicated the umbrella he was holding.

“Oh, no, I didn’t leave that at your house or something the last time it was raining, did I?” Cass had a terrible habit of forgetting where she’d left unimportant things like umbrellas, coats, and her keys and inconveniencing everyone else over it.

He laughed, “No, this is one of the ones you gave me for the leaks. But I think you may have left a few when it was raining when you came in but not when you left.”

“...sorry.”

“It’s fine. I have plenty of space and there are a few more leaks since you gave me this one. But what was so important that you went out in this? I know how you feel about the weather… ‘weathering.’”

Cass laughed at his use of one of her favorite not-words, “I had to run to the market.” She tugged at the handle of her embarrassingly empty bag.

“Hmmm…” She glanced at him again. His eyes were narrowed at her, but he was still smiling.

“I… wanted a change of scenery. I know what Anders thinks of Meredith, but she’s got  _ nothing _ on my personal prison warden.” Fenris opened his mouth to say something, but Cass decided she didn’t want to dwell on her mother at the moment, so she interrupted him before he could start, “But what about you; don’t you usually go to the Hanged Man and play Wicked Grace when the weather's like this? Since you apparently have as much of an aversion to using my perfectly nice umbrellas inside as I do using them outside.”

“Hmmm, about that. Varric won’t front me any more money until I pay him what I already owe in full, and I  _ don’t _ need you to pay it for me, Cass.” Apparently Cass wasn’t the only one who had things they didn’t want derailing the conversation that warranted a preemptive interruption. “Besides, I was hoping I’d see you and I wasn’t sure you’d believe I’d gone to the Hanged Man and not had anything to drink.”

“Wait, you’re  _ allowed _ to go into a bar and not drink?” Cass had no idea something like that was possible. She assumed the reason Varric kept going on about her being on his tab was because Corff was charging her for entering and the dwarf knew she would never pay the bartender a copper.

“Well, I think Corff likes to keep that particular bit of information under wraps, but it is indeed allowed. But still, after… well, I didn’t want you to think I didn’t know what I was doing. Or that it was anything other than what I wanted to do.”

“I… oh, um… okay.” She had no idea why but she could feel herself blushing again and it seemed to be getting harder to breathe for some reason.

She saw him grin at her out of the corner of her eye. He angled the umbrella slightly so he could approach her to walk her back to the wall. Anyone else and Cass would reach for her harpy knife to leave the person in a bloody mess on the cobblestones missing several little pieces, unless they retreated very quickly. But  _ this  _ was what she had wanted Fenris to do since she’d realized he was in the alley with her, even if she only put that together now. Once she was flush against it, he put a hand to the wall beside her head and leaned towards her.

“So, Cassia, what would you do if I kissed you right now?”

“I… um… I…” Cass brought a hand to her throat and rubbed it along her collar. She couldn’t breathe right, and while she was used to that, this time it wasn’t painful. She tried to focus so she would be able to answer but her brain seemed to have fallen into so many pieces she had no idea how to set about putting it back together. “I… um… I…  _ I don’t know _ ,” she whispered. She didn’t seem to be in trouble for the truth so far, but she wasn’t sure how long her luck would hold out.

“Why?”

“Because… well, because. I haven’t… no one’s ever…” Why was it so hard to just admit she had no idea what she was doing in this situation? She was almost positive Fenris had figured that out by now, so why was it so hard to say?

“Really?”

She took her lower lip between her teeth and peeked at him through half-closed eyes. She saw him swallow and while she wasn’t able to look at his face, she could  _ feel _ his eyes on her. Boring into her. Like she was the only thing in the world worth looking at. And she wanted to keep it that way. “Really.” She leaned away from the wall slightly so she could cross her hands behind her back. She felt Fenris’ gaze move from her face to her breasts, which her new position and heavy breathing had placed on full display. “I… um… I haven’t  _ wanted _ anyone to before.”

“Hmm… ‘before’?” He dropped the umbrella and took the hand that wasn’t pressed to the wall and used it to trace a line just above her skin from her collar bone to her cheek. She couldn’t feel any rain, but she wasn’t sure whether that was because it had stopped or had just stopped mattering. She felt her breathing get heavier and shallower, and  _ Maker, _ was she actually  _ panting _ ? She finally managed to process that he was waiting for an answer. All she could do was nod. She caught a glimpse of a smile on his lips as he leaned his face closer to hers. He placed his hand on her cheek. She winced at the contact but refused to let herself flinch away. She didn’t care that it was slightly painful, she didn’t want his hand going anywhere. He was trying to catch her eyes; she couldn’t do that so instead she grabbed the wrist next to her face to hold his hand in place. He waited a few seconds until she was breathing, well, not  _ normally _ , but the way she had been before he’d actually touched her. “What about now?”

“I…” She was  _ absolutely _ panting now, but at least she was too focused on Fenris to be mortified by it. He was still waiting for an answer but that particular question was  _ far _ too complicated for Cass just then. She tightened her grip on his wrist as her chest heaved before him.

“Should we find out, Cass? Just what you’d do if I kissed you right now?”

“... _ yes _ !” She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to stuff so much longing into one barely-whispered syllable, but it probably had something to do with the fact that she’d been wanting to do this with him for  _ years _ . Even if she only just realized it.

He slowly leaned into her and brought his lips close to hers. He kept them there, a hair’s breadth away. She could feel the heat from his breath on her face, but it wasn’t enough. She wasn’t sure what he was waiting for - she had an errant thought that he might want her to take the last step, but she just… couldn’t. This was the only thing she wanted, and he was  _ offering _ it to her, but something was holding her back. She needed him to finish this, so she let out another breathless whisper, “ _ Please _ .”

She thought she saw him smile before he  _ finally _ pressed his lips to hers. The kiss  _ burned _ . She was vaguely aware there was pain in it - there was pain in every touch to her - but she didn’t care. It was  _ so right _ . Her lower lip was pressed between his and he tugged on it slightly as he kissed her. She wanted to keep going, to run her hands through his hair and along his chest, to let the heat from the kiss consume her entirely, but… The burning was changing, becoming too painful to ignore. As good as it was, and as much as she wanted it, she needed to stop. She just didn’t know how to try and communicate that without pushing him away, and she would never forgive herself if she were to push him away.

“Hey! You two!” Cass’ eyes flew open at the voice she didn’t recognize from the courtyard and let go of Fenris’ wrist. Fenris ran his thumb along her cheekbone before dropping his hand as he pushed off the wall to lean away from her. They both turned back to the courtyard to see a guardsman at the end of the alley. “What’dya think you’re up to, lurking in an alley in the rain?”

Fenris let out a soft tsk under his breath. He may have been occupying his manor for years, but officially he wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near Hightown. And Cass and Aveline were both running out of ways to keep the wrong people from sniffing around when a guardsman they didn’t know spotted him. Cass inclined her head to Fenris to indicate he should start heading for the other end of the alley. She was one of the richest women in the city, she could lurk in whatever alley she wanted, no matter the weather. Besides, she’d never met a guardsman she couldn’t talk circles around (it took her a bit longer than usual with Aveline but she’d eventually manage it).

“Can we continue this another day?” he put his hand on her neck as he whispered his question. The good burning was back, but it was getting bad quicker.

She nodded before inclining her head to the end of the alley without an irate guardsman at the end of it again. He moved his hand from her neck to her cheek and traced her cheekbone one final time before he ran down the alley as the guardsman started walking towards Cass.

“Hey! You! Stop!” The guard picked up his pace as Cass picked up the umbrella. She wouldn’t be able to get away with actually  _ hitting _ the man with it, but if he were to trip it would be his own fault for running on the wet cobblestones.

“GUARDSMAN!” The new voice was one Cass recognized. Donnic appeared at the end of the alley. “Are you  _ trying _ to get yourself killed? This may be Hightown, but don’t take off down an alley without backup!”

The guard stopped and turned back towards Donnic. Cass couldn’t stop herself from raising her eyebrow at his back for turning it on her while he was within striking distance of her umbrella, not to mention several of her knives and all of her daggers. “They was lurking! Suspiciously!” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Cass. She was a bit surprised at the man’s accent. She knew Aveline liked her guards to have a more polished demeanor, but she also knew Aveline was trying to hire more guards from different areas of the city so maybe he was just one of her Lowtown hires. Although someone from Lowtown should know better than to turn his back like that.

Cass saw Donnic lean around the man and his eyes narrowed, then widened. He glowered at the guardsman and grabbed the front of the man’s armor to drag him out of striking distance of the knives, but not all of the daggers. And she wouldn't even have to try to reach them with the umbrella. “That’s Cassia Hawke you complete nitwit! She can lurk wherever she bloody well pleases!”

The guard looked back at Cass. “There was another one with her. Looked like an elf. He was leaning over her. Suspiciously. And it looked like he was  _ glowing _ . Suspiciously.”

Cass scowled at the guard and glanced away as she blushed. She had  _ not _ wanted anyone to have seen what just happened. Even if this idiot didn’t seem to understand what it was he saw.

Donnic addressed her sounding slightly panicked. She wasn’t great with vocal nuances, but she’d managed to get a pretty good handle on what ‘panicked man’ sounded like. Although she didn’t usually hear it without something sharp in her hand. “Hawke, he’s new, please don’t kill him. Besides, you wouldn’t want to anyway, he keeps pulling stunts like THIS he’s going to get himself killed without you having to bother about it.”

Cass nodded in vague agreement. She liked not having to bother with idiots, and from what she’d seen of this guard, it was only a matter of time before he would do something stupid around someone, if not more dangerous than her, then at least less careful.

Donnic’s face changed some. “Well, that’s a relief.” He turned to the other guard, “Come on, you get to explain to the Captain why you took off without backup AND turned your back on Cassia Hawke.”

“Why’sit matter that she’s Cassia Hawke?”

“Maker, how new  _ are  _ you man?” 

Donnic dragged the man out of the alley and Cass was alone again. She threw a glance in the direction Fenris had gone. She considered going to find him at his manor, but he’d said they would continue ‘another day,’ and she still didn’t know how she would manage to explain what she would need him to understand. As yet, she had  _ not _ fucked anything up, which would shut the voice up for a bit, but if she went back to Fenris without some sort of a plan she didn’t think that particular trend would continue. Instead she walked in the direction Donnic and the guard had gone; back to her estate. Her mother may be waiting for her there, but at least she could blame her delay on the idiot guard and the knowledge that she  _ had _ managed to make progress with Fenris would hopefully make her mother’s ridiculous new hobby slightly less grating.

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
